from the george w. bush presidential center in dallas, this is 40 minutes. [applause] >> thank you, mr. secretary, for the kind introduction. i don't know if you can see me, this is a rather large podium. [laughter] it reminds me of what i frequently tell my washington colleagues, everything's bigger in texas but me. [laughter] if you can't see me, at least you can hear me. anyway, i was delighted to accept the invitation to speak before the bipartisan policy center for a couple of reasons. number one, because of the outstanding work that you have done in the housing arena and, number two, i live about three miles from here, so it took me about seven minutes to get here. anyway, the truth is as a fairly new chairman of standing committee of congress, if the truth be known, i have a number of speaking invitations that come my way. a lot of press that's interested in speaking to me, but i assure you, i do not have to work to remain humble. but because i have a lot of speaking invitations, i accept a lot of them. and at this home about three miles are here, abo